Robert Hare, M.D
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ROBERT HARE, M.D. HXSM^KSB ROBERT HARE, M.D. ~~SiJ%'ifX- From the Philadelphia Ledger, May 17, 1858. DEATH OP PROF. ROBERT HARE. Dr. Robert Hare, extensively known as a celebrated Chemist and Physician, died at his residence, in this city, on Saturday last, at the advanced age of 77 years. Dr. Hare, in 1801, made the discovery of the "Compound or Oxyhydrogen Blowpipe," the operations of which were communicated to the Chemical Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Sci ence. The Doctor received from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences the Rumford Medal for the instrument. He introduced, subsequently, a modification of the compound blow pipe, which was fed by alcohol, and also invented a new gal vanic instrument, known as Hare's Calorimotor, an account of in 1819. which was published in Silliman's Journal Among his other inventions mentioned in the same Journal, we might mention the Litrameter, an instrument for ascertaining the spe cific gravities of fluids ; the Hydrostatic Blowpipe, an apparatus acid Ba for freezing water by the aid of sulphuric ; Improved Gold Leaf rometer Gage Eudiometer; Single Electroscope, in chemical to fa and numerous other improvements apparatus cilitate the works of the laboratory. A . ,IOO H2.75CTR To the Materia Medica, Dr. Hare contributed by his process for denarcotizing laudanum, and to Toxicology by his method of detecting minute quantities of opium in solution. In 1818, the Medical Dr. Hare was elected to the chair of Chemistry in Department of the University of Pennsylvania, which post he retained until 1847, when he resigned. Dr. Hare contributed American papers on various subjects to the transactions of the Philosophical Society. One was on the Tornado or Water SpQiit, with a detailed description of the remarkable storm at New Brunswick a few years ago. Dr. Hare, a few years since, became identified with believers in spiritualism, and took quite an active part in the promulgation of that doctrine. The Doc tor has left behind him a widow and three children. From the North American and United States Gazette. DOCTOR ROBERT HARE. In the death of Dr. Robert Hare, which took place on Satur day morning, science has to mourn the loss of one of her fa vourite sons. Our grief at this announcement should be soft ened by the reflection that he had passed the time assigned by the for he was Psalmist, seventy-seven years of age at the date of his decease. Doctor ever Hare, since the beginning of the present century, has been known, and during many years of this period, cele brated, for the zealous and successful prosecution of chemistry, and especially of electro-galvanism. His first discovery, the "Compound or Oxyhydrogen Blowpipe," was made in 1801, when he had not attained the of age manhood. Fed by oxygen and this hydrogen gases, instrument produced such an intense of as to melt degree heat, the alkalies and the most refractory minerals and gems. its aid, By lime, barytes, strontia and mag nesia were and decomposed, their metallic bases evolved. He 3 succeeded, many years subsequently, in reducing, by this blow pipe, twenty-five ounces of platina to a fluid state—a fact which he communicated, during a visit to England, to the Chemical Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Sci ence. Since then he received from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences the Rumford Medal, for this instrument. In after years he introduced a modification of the compound blowpipe, which was fed by alcohol. He invented a new gal vanic instrument known as Hare's Calorimotor, of which, toge ther with a new theory of galvanism, he gave an account in Sil- liman's Journal, in 1819. Two years later, we find him con tributing a memoir, in the same journal, on, some new modifica tions of galvanic apparatus, together with the outlines of a new theory of galvanism. By this apparatus, which he called the Galvanic Deflagrator, charcoal was ignited, and produced a light equal to the brilliancy of the sun, and too vivid to be borne by eyes of common strength. The combustion of the metals pro duced by it was peculiarly brilliant. Platina, a quarter of an inch in diameter, was instantly fused. The galvanic deflagrator was declared, by Professor Silliman, of Yale College, to be "the finest present made to this department of knowledge since the discovery of the pile of Volta, and of the trough of Cruik- shanks." About this time Dr. Hare gave a description of an improved gasometer, and of a new eudiometer, invented by him. Among his other inventions, also detailed in Silliman's Journal, we may mention the Litrameter, an instrument for ascertaining the specific gravities of fluids ; also the hydrostatic blowpipe, a ' modification of impelling power beyond what could possibly be He an is obtained by the breath. described, also, apparatus for freezing water by the aid of sulphuric acid. Among his latest inventions was the "Improved Barometer Gage Eudiometer." Numerous were the improvements and modifications in chemi cal apparatus introduced by him, to facilitate the works of the laboratory. His "Single Gold Leaf Electroscope," doubtless suggested by Bennet's instrument with two gold leaves, is repre- 4 sen sented, by Sir W. Snow Harris, to manifest an astonishing sitiveness to the smallest electrical force. To the Materia Medica, Dr. Hare contributed by his process for denarcotising laudanum, and to Toxicology, by his method of detecting minute quantities of opium in solution. the Doctor Hare contributed papers on various subjects to Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. One was of on the Tornado, or Water Spout, with a detailed description the remarkable storm at New Brunswick, a few years ago. He considered the atmospherical disturbances, in these cases, to be owing to an electrified current of air. His views were at vari ance with those of Colonel Redfield, of New York, with whom he more than once debated the subject. The eminence of Dr. Hare in his favorite branch caused him to be elected, in 1818, to the chair of Chemistry in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, which had been vacated by the transfer of Dr. John Redman Coxe to the chair of Materia Medica. Dr. H. retained this post until his resigna tion of it in or a 1847, during period of nearly thirty years. There have been many more attractive and brilliant lecturers— no one more honestly intent on instructing his class ; and, cer tainly, no one, *n either side of the Atlantic, performed his ex periments on such a large scale, and with what we might almost call such a grand apparatus—more especially when he wished to exhibit the wonders of electricity and galvanism. It must have seemed to his auditors that when he sometimes paused in the midst an very of explanation, it was from no want of clear of his conception subject, nor of words; but because at the mo ment, a new thought would present itself, and he straightway allowed himself to imagine the new combinations and the results that must follow. Beyond the contributions to science, in the vehicles already mentioned, Dr. Hare wrote but little. He was not the author of any systematic work, for his "Compendium of was Chemistry" intended for his pupils, and as a text-book to his lectures. In its pages, so copious illustrated by drawings 5 of different chemical apparatus and instruments used in his lec- tures.it showed what he did, if the letter press fell short of tell ing what he said. Doctor Hare was fond of discussing questions of political and he economy, occasionally issued brochures on those which most interested him at the moment. He had warm political pre dilections, and was never backward in expressing them. In life he was a early federalist, and in later times a whig. His frankness on such occasions, as on others which came up in the course of conversation, might seem to a stranger to be rather brusque; but those who knew him could readily acquit him of all intention to wound the feelings or to give pain to any fellow being. He was, indeed a man without guile, and, withal, given to fits of abstraction, so as at times to seem to be wanting in the amenities of life, which in his heart he felt inclined to cherish in society, as he did uniformly in his own family. He was not only placable but magnanimous ; and if he was sometimes chafed with the attempts made to deprive him of the merits of certain discoveries, or to underrate his scientific attainments, he seemed to be influenced more by a sense of justice than by con siderations of personal vanity. Here we would fain terminate our brief and imperfect sketch of the labors and character of departed genius; but we have yet to advert to what is everywhere known, and silence respecting which could only pass for an idle affectation of friendship. Our readers know that we allude to the delusion under which Dr. Hare labored during the last few years of his life, by a be lief in "spiritualism," as the thing is misnamed, and in his abil ity to hold intercourse with the other world through an invisible but present medium. Surprise has been very generally felt that so zealous and successful a votary of science should have allowed himself to be mystified in this manner. But, without entering into recondite psychological inquiries, which would be out of place on the present occasion, we think that an explana in the constitution of his in tion may be found original mind, 6 the long and intense strain of his intellectual faculties during the in the many years in which he was uninterruptedly engaged studies of the closet and the experiments of the laboratory; and, He had finally, in the very nature of his favorite pursuits.